The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says about 5.2 million people or nearly half of the population are facing food insecurity in South Sudan,.
“The figure includes 4.9 million South Sudanese and 260,000 refugees from Sudan, Congo and Ethiopia.
“The refugees have been in South Sudan for about five years,’’ OCHA Spokesman in South Sudan, Frank Nyakairu said while addressing newsmen.
Nyakairu noted that dry spells and flooding attributed to climate change had hampered farming.
According to him, the lack of food is also largely due to a military conflict that has ravaged the country since Dec. 2013 and displaced 3.4 million people.
Eugene Owusu, the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, said the humanitarian situation in the country had deteriorated dramatically due to the devastating combination of conflict, economic decline and climatic shocks.
The conflict pitting President Salva Kiir against his former Deputy Riek Machar had killed tens of thousands of people.
However, humanitarian organisations had appealed for 1.6 billion dollars to provide food and other types of assistance in South Sudan in 2017.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a worsening drought is meanwhile hitting nearby Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, where over 11 million people are facing severe hunger. (dpa/NAN)